hello everyone and welcome back to
english with lucy today i'm going to
talk to you about confidence confidence
is something that a lot of language
learners lack I know because I myself
speak some other languages and when I
was learning them I really felt quite
shy at times and I could have used a
video by someone to give me a boost so
this is what I want to do for you today
I've got five tips that I can give you
that will help you learn to speak more
confidently more fluently and I really
hope that my tips will motivate you a
bit more so that you can really learn
English with lots of enthusiasm now I've
got an Instagram account and I like to
chat with my students on there and this
morning I posted a video asking my
current students what made them feel
more confident when speaking English and
I got lots of replies and at the end of
the video I'm going to show some of
those replies to you and see if you can
relate with them see if you disagree or
agree I think it's really important to
get opinions and information from people
who are learning English right now they
are just like you in the same situation
so a little bit about me first so
obviously I am English with Lucy I am an
English teacher and I have been teaching
for over 3 years now it's my love it's
my passion it's what I want to do for
the rest of my life now part of the
reason that I enjoy teaching so much is
because I have also been through the
language learning experience I've been
through it with Spanish I now speak
fluent Spanish I see me Gracie hablando
en espanol puedes ver este video ki k
grave a hablando de la serda risque
comedy Dona fan yon right so let's get
started with the tips the first and most
important tip I can give you is laugh at
yourself have a sense of humor don't
take it too seriously
on this channel I like to laugh I like
to have fun and sometimes I will sort of
make fun of the errors that my stew
normally make and this is because I want
them to get used to laughing at their
own errors enjoy your errors your errors
are not bad and if you can laugh at them
it will make the learning experience so
much more pleasant now my teaching
methods aren't for everyone for every
ninety-nine positive comments I will
receive a negative one saying you
shouldn't laugh at your students you're
a terrible teacher now I can laugh at
your errors but I can also laugh at mine
and I do frequently so that's why I
include the outtakes at the end of some
of my videos and that's why I filmed my
parrot Arisa video which is actually in
Spanish but it's of me talking about
these stupid ridiculous hilarious errors
that I made in Spanish I once asked for
a penis Caesar salad I once also made an
awful mistake in an ice cream shop the
word for a cone of ice cream is gone Oh
Louisville and the word for vagina in
Spanish is gone you and I think you can
probably imagine what I asked for God
nearly lather yeah I was kind of
embarrassed in the moment but now I can
laugh about it and it's a great story to
tell I always find that if you're
finding it hard to have a good
conversation with someone that's also
learning another language well a really
good way of starting a conversation is
by talking about the errors that you've
made worth learning languages it's
always a really good conversation
starter for me now number two is all
about your mistakes again so we're not
just laughing about them we are
intentionally making them I want you to
make mistakes I know many students that
would go long periods of time avoiding
making certain mistake they are trying
to achieve 100% perfection I want you to
laugh at your mistakes learn from them
and move on
mistakes are essential even in English I
make mistakes and you guys love pointing
them out so you need to accept your
mistakes learn from them laugh at them
and move on okay number three is pretend
that you are confident when I started
teaching English I was only nine
and I remember walking into classrooms
of 20 to 30 adults nervous
low-level adults in Spain and just
thinking wow I am the youngest person in
this room I have to get this group of
scary scary adults to trust me and
believe what I'm saying and and listen
to me
and also to respect me and I'd never
really felt truly nervous before in my
life
but walking into big classrooms
especially on the first day was
nerve-wracking it were it made me really
nervous and really anxious and I found
that the best way of gaining confidence
was to pretend I was confident I haven't
been teaching for long I didn't have
much experience but I tried my best
I prepared hard and I walked in held my
head high and I spoke to everyone
confidently and I really pretended that
I knew what I was doing more than I
actually did and this actually created
real confidence not only in me but in my
students I looked as if I knew what I
was doing and they trusted me and
respected me and once I spent enough
time pretending I was confident I
actually started feeling genuinely
confident though I had real confidence
but it came from that initial fake
confidence so how can we apply this to
your language learning well when you're
speaking in English hide those nerves
body language is key pretend that you
know what you're talking about
don't be arrogant but show that you are
not afraid and people will trust you
listen to you pretend that you're
confident okay number four and this is
something that I really really believe
in and this is talk to yourself I always
talk to myself in the language that I'm
learning and it really serves as
preparation for when you're in
situations in which
you will need to use the language the
main things that I like to practice are
my anecdotes the stories that you
typically tell to each new person you
meet things that you generally say on a
weekly or daily basis it's also good to
practice funny stories that you think
will make people laugh
because you want them to come out in the
right way so if you're a lower level
make sure you practice your daily
conversations how are you how's the
weather what your hobbies are what you
do for a living and if you're a more
advanced learner make sure you talk to
yourself about funny anecdotes your life
story things that happen to you that
we're interesting observations about
other people's cultures when you give a
presentation for university or for work
you don't just wing it you don't just
walk up and speak you practice it and so
it should be the same for these stories
as well number five immerse yourself and
you can take whatever you want from this
immersion in my case would be going to
the country of the language you're
learning and living there integrating
yourself into the society into the
culture just absorbing the language and
the feeling and the and the atmosphere
that for me is the best form of
immersion now that isn't possible for
everyone immersion for you might be an
hour a week in a language Academy it
might be a language exchange with a
native speaker it might be an online
language exchange with another english
learner it might be watching an episode
of your favorite TV show in English with
English subtitles every night but in
order to build your confidence you need
to get used to listening in English so
you need to find the right immersion
technique for you there is always a
solution we have a brilliant saying in
English called when there's a will
there's a way so when you intend to do
something there's a way of doing it and
if you want to find a way of immersing
yourself into English or the language
that you're learning there is a way now
I want to read a few of the suggestions
from my students on
on Instagram and one I really like and
not all of you are going to like this
this is from Ilic from Venezuela and he
says hello
I believe that drinking is the way to
get more confidence I went to Brighton
for a year and the best classroom was
the pub brilliant look Ilic has really
made the most of his situation he was in
Brighton he immersed himself and he
found native speakers McCulloch from
Brazil says she likes watching movies
without subtitles again it's that
immersion technique I was talking to you
about Alejandra from Mexico has a really
good piece of advice people should not
be afraid to ask natives when they don't
know how to say something it's the way
that I've increased my vocabulary and
improved my pronunciation and of course
your videos help haha
that's sweet and yeah Alejandra is
absolutely right Mohammed has also got
some really good advice he says speak
English with your close friends yeah you
can speak English with people you trust
he also says to imagine yourself in
different daily situations in which you
have to speak English again it's that
talking to yourself technique that I
mentioned before
Paco says the more he speaks with
natives the more confident he feels and
yes it's the immersion again Roy says
get a girlfriend who's a native speaker
yes if you can manage that that's
fantastic but make sure you're with her
for the right reason Hector says speak
slowly at first and then build up
absolutely I completely agree with
Hector okay guys that is it for today's
class I really hope that it's helped you
and I really hope that you feel slightly
more motivated now don't forget to
connect with me on all of my social
media and I will see you again soon for
another lesson alright big kiss and I
will see you soon